Luka Dončić Wore a Killer Watch For His Dallas Revenge Game

This week, Slovenian phenomenon Luka Dončić returned to Dallas to play his former team, the Mavericks. Clearly, there were mixed feelings going into the game: Dressed like a mourner—or a stealth assassin, depending on your POV—in all black, Dončić grew visibly emotional when his old team played him a tribute video during the pre-game warmup. The night finished with Dončić torching his former team and started on the right foot with an equally fire watch.

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The now-Laker wore an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked, an appropriately blacked-out watch for his monochromatic getup. Since being traded to LA in a shocking trade in February, Dončić has been all Audemars Piguet. During his introductory press conference, we spotted him in a yellow-gold ref. ref. 15407BA.OO.1220BA.01. Any Royal Oak is a notable Royal Oak, of course—the product of famed watch designer Gérald Genta’s fertile imagination, the model family was dreamed up on the eve of the Basel watch fair in the early 1970s. But there’s something special about an AP-made perpetual calendar, and there’s something doubly special about a skeletonized version housed in the Royal Oak case.

Dončić’s ref. Ref. 26585CE.OO.1225CE.01 doesn’t boast the latest generation of the brand’s QP movement, the Calibre 7138, which can be adjusted using the crown alone. The Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Openworked is still a hell of a watch, boasting a sapphire dial with applied pink gold hour indices, luminescent pink gold hands, and four registers displaying the day, date, month, leap year, and moon phase. This is the type of watch that both Bruce Wayne and Batman would wear.

Perhaps more than any other organization, venue, or event, the NBA is the national proving ground for fresh watch designs. (And vintage ones, as well.) From the players themselves to actors, musicians, and business types, all manner of well-heeled celebs show up in their horological best to be seen (and judged) courtside on their wristwear choices. Dončić is merely the latest in a long line of superstars to embrace the cult of the status-signifying expensive watch. But the proliferation of a complicated perpetual calendar from a family-owned business based in the middle-of-nowhere Switzerland throughout the broader zeitgeist is notable. It feels as if we’re all climbing an interesting horological and cultural mountain together and haven’t reached the peak just yet. (Just ask LeBron and his AP-wearing Ken doll!)

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James Marsden’s Cartier Tank Must

No longer an IWC brand ambassador, James Marsden is free to experiment with other makes and models. Spotted at a panel discussion for his thriller series Paradise at Deadline’s Contenders Television 2025, he wore Cartier’s Tank Must watch in steel, a quartz-powered take on the maison’s famed dress watch from the First World War. Designed in 1917, the Tank is perhaps most famous today as the Tank Louis Cartier with a gold case. However, the more recent Must models—which are themselves based upon an entry-level collection from the 1970s—offer fans a more affordable way to cop the Tank look without shelling out five figures. (The SolarBeat version even boasts solar charging and a 16-year battery life.)

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Courtesy of Chopard

John Mulaney’s Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph

Another day, another sighting of John Mulaney in an excellent suit and Chopard watch! Hosting his weekly Netflix show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, the comedian rocked the Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph in 18k yellow gold and Lucent Steel. A longtime sponsor of the famed rally in Italy, Chopard designs fresh Mille Miglia watches inspired by vintage automobiles annually. (The original endurance race, which ran from 1927 through 1957, transformed into a regularity race in 1977.) Mulaney’s watch, a two-tone version in steel with a gold bezel, features a handsome petrol blue dial and a three-register chronograph layout powered by a chronometer-certified automatic movement.

Neil Mockford

Tom Hiddleston’s Cartier Tank Américaine

Attending the Olivier Awards in London this week, English actor Tom Hiddleston likewise wore an excellent Cartier, a Tank Américaine in 18K yellow gold in the brand’s Large size. Launched in 1989, the Américaine is a sort of modern take on the Cintrée, the curved Tank dating to the early 1920s. And while it originally sported an of-the-times quartz movement, it’s now available in a wide variety of configurations and power plants: Hiddlestone’s Large model in 18K yellow gold, for example, is powered by an automatic movement, the Calibre 1899 MC. (It can also be had in Small, Medium, and even Mini versions with quartz movements, metal bracelets, diamonds, and more.)

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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Panerai PAM 341 L’Egiziano

One of the OG “Paneristi,” the name given to Panerai diehards, the Governator is a longtime supporter of the brand. Schwarznegger is also one of few human beings who can pull off the larger-than-life, vintage-inspired designs from this Florentine military outfitter. The PAM 341 ‘L’Egiziano’ he wore while attending the Aspen Planet Media Climate Summit, based upon a watch made for the Egyptian military in the 1950s, is 60mm wide, yet it somehow looked positively normal on the former actor’s wrist.